detroit violence

Thirteen days ago, on the east side of Detroit, a ten-year-old boy darted in front of a truck driven by a middle-aged tree trimmer named Steven Utash. He couldn’t help hitting the child, whose leg was broken.

When Utash got out to check on the boy, a mob beat him so severely he nearly died. He was in a medically-induced coma for days, and may end up with permanent brain damage.

All that is horrifying enough, but there is one additional terrible detail which is the main reason the story has gotten national attention.

The tree trimmer was white. His assailants were all black. And I can tell you that this is doing more damage to Detroit than a hundred drug murders could have. This may be more devastating to the city than Kwame Kilpatrick ever was. People are used to crooked politicians of all colors, shapes and sizes. Detroit had white mayors who wound up in prison long before Kilpatrick was born.

“The mediation portion of Detroit’s bankruptcy starts today. The city and its creditors will try to find common ground outside court. City and state officials will meet with the city’s major unions and retirement systems,” Sarah Cwiek reports.

16% of Michiganders are driving with fraudulent insurance

“Michigan’s Secretary of State says statistics show a large percentage of Michigan motorists are driving around with phony auto insurance policies. A recent one day survey found 16 percent of auto registration renewals used fraudulent paper insurance certificates,” Steve Carmody reports.

Flint and Detroit still get top rankings for violence

Flint and Detroit remain the most violent cities in America. The Detroit News reports on FBI crime statistics released Monday.

“Flint saw an overall rise in violent crime. The city reported 2,774 violent crimes in 2012, nearly 400 more than 2011’s total of 2,392, the FBI reported. Detroit saw a small drop in violent crime with 15,011 incidents in 2012, compared to 15,245 in 2011.”

Federal, state, and local officials say they’re banding together to fight rising gun violence in Detroit. FBI Special Agent Andy Arena, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing are among those calling for a “holistic” approach to curbing crime. Arena says the FBI is pitching in by helping analyze Detroit’s crime data for trends and hotspots. But he says there are also deeper problems to address.